How US aid lifts Afghans

An Afghan teacher writes a question on a board in a high school on the outskirts of Kabul on July 5. Since 2002, aid funding has increased the number of teachers in Afghanistan from 25,000 to 175,000.

Musadeq Sadeq/AP

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The United States recently designated Afghanistan a “major non-NATO ally,” a move that will make it easier for the Afghan government to acquire defense equipment from the US and that could ultimately boost the nation’s emergence as a democracy.

How has Afghanistan fared in terms of converting other forms of American assistance to measurable social advancement?

The US Agency for International Development met July 7-9 in Tokyo with some 70 partners on Afghanistan’s transition. The group looked ahead, and also back at the gains of the past 10 years. Some USAID claims, particularly on health, have been challenged in the past. And observers maintain that whether these gains are sustainable remains unknown.